The picture that most Americans have of our government and indeed our country is that of upstanding goodness. It is a picture that has been carefully painted for generations and is generally accepted as reality, when in fact there is a vile underbelly that defies that image.

While the impression the U.S. Government stands for is one of high ethical and moral standards, yet the evidence is quite the contrary. While I won’t go into the long history of this deeply embedded corruption and deception, I will explore recent [within the last 40 years] attempts to con the American People about the true nature of their government and its covert shenanigans.

The primary focus of this underbelly is the use of the covert functions of the CIA and peripheral agencies to exert influence and, in many cases, subvert foreign governments. While such actions are performed under the guise of protecting the interests and security of the United States of American, the actual consequences of those actions prove that not only are they ineffective, but also highly damaging to our nation and its future.

In the early 40s, FDR appointed several influential men, primarily Wall Street investors and attorneys, to attempt to tip the scales of global trade in favor of the United States. By the late 40s, these men not only sought U.S. supremacy in trade, but contrary to contemporary Nation Intelligence Estimates, the proposed the creation of program that would report and publicize a massive global communist threat from the Soviet Union.

In 1951, this same group of men formulated the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD) and as all good political propaganda machines; not only was it successful in its ability to influence Congress, but it convinced the entire population that the U.S. faced a threat of such proportions that it could no longer ignore the “threat of communist enslavement”. Of course, CIA reports of the day present a very different picture and assessment of the actual “threat”. The “agenda” was set and would become the most useful tool certain elements of the government would possess for decades to come.

The Committee was not bound by any political party and assisted various administrations until the early 70s with the fulfillment of the doctrine of “Containment”. “Containment” was, as it now turns out, to be just another word for “Imperialism” with the goal of U.S. domination by military conquest using the now ever-present “Communist Threat” as fuel for the flames of fear.

The Carter Administration ignored, for the most part, the recommendations of the CPD; in fact, the CPD was not allowed access to the inner workings of Carter policy. This did not prevent the CPD from working behind the scenes and it should be to no ones surprise that none other than Zbigniew Brzezinski was an effective mole within the Carter Administration.

By 1977 Brzezinski implemented the [NWG] Nationalities Working Group which sole purpose was to inflame ethnic tensions within the Soviet Union Islamic populations. In fact, after the fall the Shah of Iran, there was a push by Brzezinski to forge a new alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Ayatollah Khomeini.

Contrary to popular belief, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was far from a surprise to members of the CPD and the covert agencies like the CIA who did the bidding of their masters in the CPD. Brzezinski states: “The United States launched a covert operation to bolster anticommunist guerrillas in Afghanistan at least six months before the 1979 Soviet invasion of that country. We did not push the Russians into invading, but we KNOWINGLY increased the probability that they would.”

Afghanistan would become the U.S. testing ground for new type of weapon: Terrorism. Afghan Warlords were recruited to form terrorist cells, which would create a potent and active threat along the Afghanistan border with incursions into the then Soviet Union. The Soviet Union always kept the Islamic regions of Central Asia and Kazakhstan of the Soviet Empire under a very tight fist. The purpose of the U.S. backed, U.S. Trained and supplied terrorist groups was to foment unrest within those Soviet regions. Under such conditions, the Soviet leadership could no longer ignore the threat and to counter the U.S. plan for destabilization, the USSR invaded Afghanistan just as the CPD desired.

The Afghan terrorists were baptized by the CIA with huge amounts of cash, weapons and supplies and were extensively trained in guerrilla warfare techniques.

Later Brzezinski would remark, “What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet Empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?”

By 1980, the CIA was given a name of someone handpicked by the head of the Saudi Secret Service to “lead” the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. That man was Osama bin Laden. He eagerly begins his mission with financial, organizational and engineering support for the fledgling and splintered “freedom fighter” group. Soon, under he guidance of Osama bin Laden; the Mujahideen is a multinational Islamic force, which would later form the core of al-Qaeda.

Eventually, the powerful CPD sought to destroy Carter’s détente with the Communist Block and would once again establish its power within the newly elected Reagan Administration. Under the new Reagan Administration, the old “communist threat” could now consist of “Soviet-Backed International Terrorism.” Threat. During the Reagan Administration, the policy to induce Islamic radicalization within the entire region was upgraded.

During the period between 1981 and 1991, the CIA found another lucrative ally in the Opium producers of Afghanistan. In that period, opium production rose from 250 tons in 82 to 2,000 tons by 91. This incredible increase of opium production was due to the fact that the CIA sanctioned the drug trafficking and promoted a working relationship with those producing the drug. One such producer was the warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who, at the time, received over half of all weapons imported by the CIA.

Another method, which still haunts us today, that was used by the CIA was pushing an extremely radicalized Islamic ideology among the population. This was not only used with the adult population, but the CIA also insured that generations to come would be radicalized through providing Islamic schools with textbooks which brought extremist ideology to children in the region, it worked. Between 1984 and 1994, the University of Nebraska, funded by United States Agency for International Development [USAID], produced some of the most disturbing textbooks for radicalizing Afghan children. Of course, millions of these textbooks not only found their way into the hands of Afghan children, but also were exported into Pakistan and other areas in the region; they are still being used today to indoctrinate students with extremists’ ideology that consist of hatred of non-Muslims, and Islamic liberation through terrorism.

During this same period, the Pakistani ISI, under the guidance of the CIA, begins its recruitment of Islamic Fundamentalist around the Arab world to join in the Mujahideen Holy War against the Soviets. By 1984, Osama bin Laden sets up base in Peshawar, Pakistan and creates a front organization called the [MAK] Maktab al-Khidamar. The MAK was the medium used to funnel money, arms and import “freedom fighters” from the Muslim world into Afghanistan.

MAK becomes the primary CIA/ISI Conduit for supporting the “freedom fighters”. During this time Osama bin Laden becomes closely associated with the Warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and helps to increase his opium smuggling operations.

The ISI, at the bequest of the CIA, begins a special cell of operatives who utilize the opium/heroin profits to finance more covert operations in Afghanistan to combat the Soviets, unfortunately after the Soviet withdrawal, this special cell continues its work and begins a network of heroin refineries and smugglers in Pakistan to export heroin into the West. Soon, the ISI becomes extremely powerful and notorious on heroin money. By 1985, Osama bin Laden is sharing heroin profits of over $100 Million per year with the ISI.

Between 1985 and 1989, Osama bin Laden’s MAK opened branches in over 30 U.S. Cities with the assistance of his mentor Sheikh Abdullah Azzam. Azzam made several trips to the U.S. and other countries to organize the MAK branches. With the knowledge of the U.S. Government and support from the CIA, the MAK branches raised millions of dollars from Muslim-Americans. Bin Laden assumes power over the MAK after Azzam is assassinated in car bombing. MAK, through bin Laden’s guidance is transformed into al-Qaeda and the branch offices continue to funnel money into the network right under the nose of the U.S. Government.

At the same time, the CIA, MI6 and the ISI launch guerrilla attacks into the Soviet territories of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Targets include civilian factories, storage warehouses, and military installations. The CIA supplies the ISI with extremist Islamic literature and Korans to import into the Soviet territories to foment Islamic uprisings and destabilize the region.

Between 1986 and 1992, William Casey backed a plan to recruit Islamic extremists from around the world to fight in the Mujahideen Jihad and over 100,000 Islamic militant terrorists are trained in camps under the direct oversight of the CIA and MI6. The MAK [al-Qaeda] terrorists and future Taliban fighters are trained by British Special Forces units and become experts in bomb making, weapons, and guerrilla tactics. The leaders of the groups receive special training at a CIA camp in Virginia. While the operation was originally intended to defeat the Soviet invaders in Afghanistan, it was continued for several years after the Soviet withdrawal.

Richard Murphy, Assistant Secretary of State under the Reagan Administration, later said with regret: “We did spawn a monster in Afghanistan. Once the Soviets were gone, [the U.S. funded and trained terrorists] were looking around for other targets, and Osama bin Laden has settled on the United States as a source of all evil. Irony? Irony is all over the place.” President George H.W. Bush was told by the future deposed President of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto: “ You are creating a Frankenstein!”Indeed, we did just that and as one diplomat notes, “The consequences for all of us are astronomical.”

In 1986, the CIA gives Sheikh Abdul-Rahman, the ultra-radical Islamic leader, a U.S. Visa in order to promote support among U.S. Islamic students for MAK and the Afghan Mujahideen. Later, in the early 90s the Sheikh was allowed to permanently settle in the U.S.

Between 87 and 89, Michael Springmann, Head of the U.S. Consul in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was ordered to “issue visas to unqualified applicants. The majority of applicants were none other than bin Laden recruits. It turns out that the Jeddah Consulate was almost entirely staffed by CIA agents who continued the “open” visa program through 9/11 since 15 of the 19 9/11 “highjackers got their visas through the Jeddah Consulate.

By 1999, it is estimated that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia had poured over $40 Billion into the “Mujahideen Project”.

Of course, what all of this points to is that there are those within our government, within the CIA, who either have had extremely minuscule foresight, or have agendas which are not consistent with the security interests of the United States and its Citizens. It is an absolutely astonishing, and indeed a horrendous tragedy which can only be considered treacherous by any standards! Perhaps it is time the American People asked who our real enemies are in the world?

Who indeed. As Pogo stated so illustriously and profoundly, "WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY- AND HE IS US".

Thanks for a concise view of one segment of America's covert operations that have helped to isolate Us and Them. All those years ago I once believed in America's "truth" but awoke to this myasmic undercurrent of dystopic profundity that encompasses the complex drama rooted in the use of terrorism in the guise of pirate philosophies of the 17th century. From these swashbucklers grew the elite families of early America, who still hold influence in present day politics and commerce. Hegemony goes back to the earliest settlers and families.

Ancient Rome used the same practices and tactics, so the more things change the more they stay the same. I'm sure that since these apes fell from their branch, and began organizing into their cute little civilized state, it has been this way. Give 'em a stick and a rock and see the fun begin.

Thanks Rep.

_________________Completely sane world
madness the only freedom

An ability to see both sides of a question
one of the marks of a mature mind